Unfinished regulations delay China M&A.

At the end of last year, it seemed like a new dawn. Eight months later, it is still midnight for foreign investors interested in M&A.

At the end of 2002, in a move that seemed to give a Christmas present to foreign investors, the Chinese government came out with legislation opening up all classes of listed and non-listed Chinese shares to foreign mergers and acquisition.

Allowing the previously jealously guarded State-owned shares of listed companies to be made available to foreign investors was groundbreaking, says Stella Leung, a partner at law firm O'Melveny and Myers.